Former Baseball Pro Claims Holocaust Would Not Have Happened if Jews “Had the Right to Bear Arms”

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Survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp cheer the soldiers of the Eleventh Armored Division of the U.S. Third Army one day after their actual liberation in May 1945. Photo: National Archives and Records Administration.

A former major league pitcher has made the claim that the Holocaust would not have happened if Jews “had the right to bear arms” and defend themselves against Hitler.

John Rocker pitched 6 somewhat-successful years in the major leagues but is perhaps best known for racial and homophobic slurs made in 1999.

In an article on the conservative website WND.com, Rocker launched into an attack on U.S. President Barack Obama’s threat to toughen gun laws. He compared Obama to “Stalin, Mao and Hitler,” saying that he wants to “severely neuter the Second Amendment and disarm the law-abiding citizens of this nation.”

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He added that disarming Americans would be to expose them to the same plight the Jews suffered in Europe during the rise of Nazism.

“Absolute certainties are a rare thing in this life, but one I think can be collectively agreed upon is the undeniable fact that the Holocaust would have never taken place had the Jewish citizenry of Hitler’s Germany had the right to bear arms and defended themselves with those arms.”

During an interview with the American magazine Sports Illustrated in 1999, Rocker was quoted as saying, in response to a question as to whether he would play in New York City: “I would retire first. It’s the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you’re (riding through) Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.”

He was originally suspended by the Major Leagues for 28 days, but had the suspension reduced to half. By 2003 he no longer was pitching in the Major Leagues.

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Before criticizing Rocker’s 1999 comment on NYC, “walk a mile in his shoes”. I have worked in NYC and it is one of four US cities that I avoid like the plague. The other three are Detroit, Chicago, and LA.

Neil Snyder

Why the quote from Rocker from one of the hundreds of interviews that he gave? Is Pontz trying to make him look like a lunatic? If so, he didn’t succeed. I think the comment he made is right on the money, and judging by what I’ve seen taking place in Israel, he should know that.

6000000 Jews with 6000000 guns…what did a few Jews do against hundreds & hundreds of Nazis at the Warsaw ghetto? The history of the Warsaw ghetto proves that Rocker is correct…

Stan Kreis

Irregardless of comments made in 1999, Rocker may be correct. My parents were fighting the Nazis, with guns, and they survived. The teenagers of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising held off the German Army for a surprising amount of time in 1943. Having them, the Jews of Warsaw may have been able to hold off the Germans long enough to make their round-ups change the course of the war. With guns and fleeing into the forests, the Polish people (and the Jews) may have stalled a German advance. Without their armored equipment, the Germans failed to enter the forests more than two times during the war, trying with each assault to defeat the Polish and Soviet and Jewish elements that actually did have weapons.

Linda Ketchum

Anti-gun people, PAY ATTENTION! Hitler had nothing to fear after the Jewish people relinquished their weapons. And what is in store for Americans. Come on, figure it out!